Super twisting control and stiffness modulation for tensegrity systems

This paper reports the synthesis of a super twisting sliding mode control strategy applied to a planar tensegrity system. The main objective is to drive the system to a desired angular position while the tensions in the cables are kept within a predetermined range to preserve the prestressed condition. Stability conditions for the proposed control strategy are established. Moreover, closed-loop performance are demonstrated through numerical simulations and experimental validations. Besides, the stiffness variation of the system is experimentally performed using the same control strategy. Robustness to external perturbations using the proposed control strategy is evaluated. Copyright (c) 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)